


Platz

by spicyboyfriend



Category: Pentagon (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Veterinarians, First Kiss, Flash Fic, Hypochondria, I JUST REALIZED THE DESCRIP MAKES IT LOOK SCARY, JINHO'S DOG IS OKAY, Kinda, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Pets, hongseok is a vet, jinho is a nervous new pet owner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-18 21:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11883378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spicyboyfriend/pseuds/spicyboyfriend
Summary: When Jinho walked into the 24 hour emergency vets office, he found a single receptionist at the counter. She looked up at him, and then at the brown, fuzzy lump in his arms.





	Platz

**Author's Note:**

> IVE HAD THIS STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR A MONTH ISH but it got a little too deep when i was writing it (my projection of hypochondria onto jinho got too real i had to delete like 1k skdljfgldj) SO i tried to keep it light after rewrites, but keep in mind that hypochondria is a horrifying mental illness, and it's not to be made fun of. beta'd by [audrey](http://archiveofourown.org/users/chameleontattoos/pseuds/chameleontattoos) thank u ;;;;;

When Kim Hyojong first suggested to Jo Jinho that he get a pet to keep him company in his small, one bedroom-one bath, bordering on studio apartment, Jinho didn’t think it was ever going to be this stressful.

To be fair, Hyojong had suggested it before he knew Jinho had slight hypochondriac tendencies, something he kept hidden fairly well and only ever bothered him once in a blue moon when something particularly odd bothered him, like an ill placed rasp in the back of his chest, or an odd thing floating out of the corner of his eye. So it wasn’t something that particularly came up often, but when it did, it was bad.

Extending his hyper paranoid fear of being sick with anything and everything to a dog, however, brought on a different wave of anxiety unlike any other.

“Again?” Hyojong said through the phone. “You’re going to the vet’s place  _ again?” _

“Mocha is sick with... something!” Jinho said, holding his phone against his ear as he picked up Mocha from the couch, snoozing cozily on a pillow until Jinho had snatched him up so suddenly. “He’s spasming when he’s sleeping.”

“Hyung, that’s what dogs do when they’re dreaming.”

“And how do you know that?” Jinho said suddenly, accusing. Hyojong sighed, and Jinho could hear the ridicule in his voice. A part of him was thankful he was able to keep his own paranoid tendencies under control. He was sure if he earned this kind of ridicule during a time where he thought  _ he  _ was sick with something, he wouldn’t be able to cope well.

“Fine. Go to the vet’s and waste your money again. They’re going to tell you the exact same thing that I’m telling you now.”

“Yeah, well, at least I can know that they’re right!” Jinho huffed. “You don’t know anything about dogs!”

“I mean, you’re about as yippy as a dog. Close enough.” Hyojong sighed, and Jinho could practically imagine the tired way he would sweep his hand over his face afterwards. 

Jinho really didn’t thank Hyojong enough for dealing with him, but in the same breath, being friends with Hyojong was no walk in the park either (badum-tss), so it was a two way street. Hyojong could suffer through his hypochondriac bouts of paranoia, and in return, Jinho wouldn’t kill him.

“Well,” Hyojong began after his silence, “safe driving. Tell the vet I said hi again. Let Mocha know I love him, and I’m sorry he’s got a freak for a owner.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

  
  
  


When Jinho walked into the 24 hour emergency vets office, he found a single receptionist at the counter. She looked up at him, and then at the brown, fuzzy lump in his arms. Mocha squirmed in Jinho’s arms, as he clicked his tongue and walked up to the counter.

“Hi. I need someone to see my dog.” Straight to the point. Great job, Jinho-at-2-in-the-morning. Way to be personable.

“Of course!” The woman chirped, as if she was used to this sort of thing. Maybe she was, seeing as it was a 24 hour emergency vets office. Whatever. “What seems to be the issue?”

“Oh... it’s....”

And of course, there it was, Jinho thought pathetically. The inevitable rationality of his brain after the initial paranoia that was now scolding and reprimanding him for acting so rashly, shaming him and making his face beet red as he looked down at a most likely completely healthy Mocha. It was so embarrassing.

Actually, it was beyond embarrassing at this point. It was just so pathetic, and Jinho was already feeling stupid standing there thinking about how he came in to have his dog checked for kicking in his  _ sleep.  _ Even though Hyojong wasn’t even there, Jinho could hear the silent “I-told-you-so” in the air.

“Oh, Seunghee, I need this invoice faxed to our suppliers immediately, there’s a mistake on the paper, and—”

Jinho started at the sound of another person’s voice, a tall man walking out from behind a pair of double doors with his eyes glued to the paper in front of him. The receptionist, Seunghee, as Jinho had heard, rolled her eyes at the man.

“That pun isn’t funny anymore,” she said, taking the papers from the man.

“Oh, Seunghee?” The man said, stifling a snort of laughter. “It’s still a little funny.”

“Would you quit it? I’m trying to help someone.”

“What seems to be the problem?” The man turned towards Jinho, reaching his hand out and running his fingers through Mocha’s fur, between his ears and smiling when Mocha yipped playfully and tried biting at his fingers. “Oh, he’s just a baby!”

“Could you see us?” Jinho said. 

The man paused, put off by the bluntness in Jinho’s tone, but smiled sweetly and nodded his head. “Sure. C’mon, I’ll take you back.”

“But he hasn’t filled out any of the paperwork—”

The man took the clipboard from Seunghee, waving his hand and leading Jinho through the double doors.

“Pardon the eerie silence— we don’t really get a lot of people here at night. Even though we’re 24 hours, it’s usually just one or two people here.” The man paused before speaking again. “Or, y’know, when a pet passes at night, but that’s still pretty quiet.”

Jinho furrowed his brows, seemingly put off by the crude bedside manners of this doctor, but... well, he was seeing Jinho without treating him like a complete freak yet, so he’d refrain from making an enemy of him.

“Oh, I’m Dr. Yang by the way, but I like when clients use Hongseok. It’s easier since we have a lot of Dr. Yang’s here. Go on, step into this room. You can let your dog down, if you’d like. The rooms are cleaned after each check up.” Hongseok paused and scribbled something down on the clipboard in his hands. “You’ll need to fill this out while I look at your dog, if that’s all right.”

Jinho nodded, taking it from Hongseok and sitting down on the seat in the corner of the room while Mocha roamed the room, rolling around the tile floor and baring his tummy for Hongseok to scratch his fingers over.

“So, what seems to be the issue with....”

“Mocha,” Jinho supplied.

“What a cute name for a cute little puppy!” Hongseok said, scratching his fingers under Mocha’s ears and laughing when he nipped at his fingertips. “Oh, he really is just a puppy, isn’t he? Still teething.”

“Yeah,” Jinho replied.

Hongseok nodded. “So?”

Jinho took a moment.

“What’s bothering him? Did he eat something he shouldn’t have?”

“Oh, that.” Jinho paused and scribbled something on the clipboard before looking back up at Hongseok. “I’m a hypochondriac.”

Hongseok furrowed his brows, taking a moment to process the words before looking back at Jinho and shaking his head with an unsure expression.

“You know this is a vet’s office, right? Like, we take care of animals, not people?”

Jinho let out a nervous chuckle. “Y-yeah, I mean.... Er, I have a tendency to... freak out when it comes to medical stuff. Even if there’s nothing going on with me at the time. It’s not too severe hypochondria. It’s just... scary when it does happen.” 

Jinho pressed his lips together in a thin line. He was sure Hongseok already thought he was a freak.

“And my friend told me to get this dog, and I really loved him at first, but now whenever something happens to him, or if he acts funny, or if he even twitches in his sleep, I freak out because I think he’s dying.”

“Ah,” Hongseok said, “that makes much more sense.”

“He was twitching in his sleep, and I called my friend. He said that was normal for sleeping dogs to do, but I was already paranoid, so I came here.” Jinho swallowed thickly, his throat feeling tight. “But when I got here, I knew he was fine, and I felt stupid for even walking in and wasting your time, and now I’m sitting here, wasting more of it because I don’t know how to shut up.”

Hongseok laughed at that, sitting back on the floor and letting Mocha curl up in his lap, still tired.

“Well, since you’re already here and wasting my time, I might as well waste some of yours, right?” Hongseok said with a bright smile. 

Despite the action that should’ve comforted Jinho, he felt shame in the pit of his gut. He nodded. 

“Humans have different stages of sleep. There’s being awake, REM sleep, and NREM sleep, which includes light and deep sleep subcategories,” Hongseok began. Jinho nodded his head. “I’m sure you’ve heard of REM sleep.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, much like humans, dogs have stages of sleep, too. They have awake stages, REM stages, NREM stages, and SWS stages. Humans have the most vivid dreams during REM sleep. Dogs do, too!” 

Hongseok patted his hand on Mocha’s stomach, laughing when Mocha growled and bit at his pant leg. 

“Mocha here was in REM sleep when he started kicking and twitching in his sleep. It’s a common action dogs do in their sleep, because... well, because they’re dogs. They dream about chasing something, or running around outside, or something along those lines. It’s completely normal, and nothing to medically worry about.”

Jinho let out a heavy sigh of relief, even though he said he knew he was being paranoid as soon as he walked into the vet’s office. There was something so comforting about having doctors (or vets, apparently) explain things rationally to him. There was nothing that could’ve compared to knowing he had the confirmation of a doctor behind him, so his brain didn’t completely go into paranoia-mode, where even his friends couldn’t convince him he was being ridiculous.

“And, to waste your time some more, sometimes dogs even have nightmares in their REM stages of sleep. It’s really common for them to wake up crying, or even howling as soon as they’re awake when they do. It scared me with my own dogs, so I don’t want you to be caught off guard by this kind of thing. If Mocha does have a nightmare, all you have to do is sit beside him and coax him into calming down. Don’t rush him or scare him, because he might bite. Nightmares are usually rare. They usually just wanna go get that rabbit.”

Jinho nodded, finally signing his name on the papers on the clipboard and handing it back to Hongseok, who took it with a grateful grin.

“So Mocha is completely fine. As for you....” Hongseok shrugged. “I can’t offer you any anxiety meds since all the ones around here are for animals, but I wish you the best?”

Jinho snorted out a laugh, somewhat more comfortable when he noticed Hongseok wasn’t rushing to get him out of the building, like most (human) doctors did when they found out he was a hypochondriac. He definitely didn’t blame most doctors for wanting to get rid of him, since sometimes his fears were a headache and a half to take care of, and most of the time Jinho felt more guilty about wasting their time and  _ knowing  _ he was wasting their time, but this was... nice. At least Hongseok was joking about it.

“I might... show up here a few times,” Jinho warned. “Like, with no real medical reason to show up.”

“Well, that’s all right.” Hongseok said easily. “I mean, as long as there aren’t real emergencies going on, generally we’re fine with check ups for dogs.” Hongseok looked at Mocha and scratched his belly, speaking in a baby tone and smiling. “Little Mocha here will be  _ sooo  _ healthy, won’t you, boy?”

“I’m gonna feel stupid coming in.”

Hongseok looked up at Jinho again. “You can’t really control it, can you?”

“I should be able to.” Jinho twiddled his thumbs sheepishly. “I was diagnosed years ago. It’s just... a nuisance at this point.” Jinho rubbed the back of his neck and looked back down at Mocha. “We should get going. It’s 2 in the morning. I have to pay.”

“Don’t even bother,” Hongseok replied, waving his hand as if waving the issue off completely. “All we did was sit in here, and you let me play with your dog, so I’d feel bad charging you anything. I’ll tell Seunghee it was a mistake. No big deal. I may have to charge you in the future for these visits, though.”

Hongseok picked up Mocha in his arms, carrying him out to the waiting room with Jinho at his side. Hongseok handed the clipboard over to Seunghee before following Jinho out to his car and handing Mocha off to him.

“Thank you,” Jinho said quietly.

“It’s my job,” Hongseok said nonchalantly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“And for explaining it to me. Uh, you could’ve kicked me out, so that was cool.”

“That’s not my job,” Hongseok said in the same tone, but laughed at the end of his sentence. Jinho couldn’t help but let out a few chuckles at his smile, bright and out of place considering it was 2 in the morning and they were standing out in the autumn cold. Jinho had to work in the morning. Hyojong was going to yell at him as soon as he saw him.  _ Ugh. _ “Drive safe. Don’t let his twitching scare you in the car.”

Jinho nodded, slipping into the car with Mocha in his arms before setting him down in the passenger’s seat and fumbling for his keys in his pockets. It was, after a moment, that Jinho realized Hongseok was knocking on the window. He pushed the door open, bumping it against Hongseok and then flushing bright red with embarrassment as he shouted out an apology.

“I think your keys fell out when you got out of the car.” Hongseok jingled a key ring in his fingers, before handing them over to Jinho and laughing again. “Seriously, get home safe now.”

Jinho nodded yet again, at a loss for words, before starting the car up and closing his door. Hongseok started back towards the building, ambling along the sidewalk before finally trudging back inside and stretching his arms up over his head.

The drive back was long— or it felt long. Jinho couldn’t tell, honestly. He just knew that by the time he was walking back into his apartment, Mocha in his arms, his eyes were crossing, and he barely made it to the couch in the living room before flopping over bonelessly and falling asleep.

  
  
  


In the morning, Jinho awoke to the sound of his blinds sliding open, followed by Hyojong’s obnoxious voice greeting him while Mocha barked at Hyojong’s obnoxiously bright neon yellow colored Vans.

“Well, look at that! Your dog isn’t dead!”

“Shut the fuck up, Hyojong, or I’ll kill you myself.”

“Stop calling me your dog, goddamn it.”

  
  
  
  
  
  


It was between one vet visit to the next that Jinho ran into Hongseok while walking Mocha, who was buzzing at the sight of Hongseok, nearly pulling Jinho down the sidewalk and meeting Hongseok, who was already crouching down and greeting him with a coo.

“It’s a nice day for a walk, hm?” Hongseok said, more towards Jinho, but not pulling his gaze away from Mocha.

“He was getting restless in the apartment.” Jinho wrapped his fingers around the leash.

“And you?” Hongseok said, standing up and stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“What about me?” Jinho said, squinting his eyes at Hongseok.

“Restless in the apartment?”

“Just because I have hypochondria doesn’t mean I’m a neurotic mess,” retorted Jinho. “I was fine.”

“That’s good,” Hongseok said. Jinho squinted at his wrist, where a string of bags were tied around it. Hongseok noticed, darting his gaze over and letting out a small laugh after a moment. “Ah.  _ Hier!” _

Jinho furrowed his brows, ready to make fun of Hongseok for using such a sudden (and foreign) word, when three large dogs trotted up behind him, all three standing side by side in a line, before sitting down and panting patiently. 

_ “Sitz,”  _ Hongseok said. The three dogs sat down, attentively waiting for another command. Mocha was absolutely losing his mind, tugging on the leash in Jinho’s hand, barking, yipping, trying to get at the three peaceful dogs who looked like they could swallow him up whole if Hongseok asked them to.

_ “Platz,”  _ Hongseok said, and the three dogs laid down on the sidewalk.

Jinho let out a loud noise of awe. “Holy shit.”

“These are my own dogs. This one is Ada. The brown one is Rudolph, and the smallest is Zelda.” Hongseok gestured towards the towering pups beside him.

“Smallest?” Jinho said, letting out a small command and Mocha begrudgingly coming to sit beside him after having a fit. “One of them is almost as tall as me!”

“They’re german dogs, so they’re a little on the bigger side.” Hongseok pet one of them, who reached just beneath his shoulder. “Rudolph is a great dane.”

“And the other two?” Jinho said, crouching down only for a second, because he didn’t like the way Rudolph looked down on him when he did so. What kind of dog was  _ that  _ big?

“Ada is a german shepherd-wolf cross breed. They were going to euthanize her because she was a little vicious when she was younger, but I took her instead. She just needed friends to mess around with.” Hongseok patted the “smallest” on her head. “Zelda is a weimaraner. She was the runt of the litter, so I took her, too.”

“And what does the thing you said mean? The piatz thing.”

“Oh, it’s  _ platz,” _ Hongseok said, “it means ‘place’ in German, they learned it to lay down.”

Jinho couldn’t help the noise of awe that left him once again. “They’re so gorgeous. And big!”

“They’re all handfuls.” Hongseok laughed, then looked at his watch. “Are you busy?”

“I mean....” Jinho gestured towards Mocha. “I’m walking my dog.”

“How would I have ever guessed?” teased Hongseok. “Do you want to get some coffee?”

“What— together?” Jinho sputtered.

“Yeah. There’s a place just down the street, and I don’t have to work tonight.” Hongseok hummed. “Unless you have plans, or just don’t want to. That’s all right.”

“No!” Jinho said, almost too loud to be casual, before he flushed bright red. “I just, thought— I mean, I figured it was a little sudden since you’ve only seen me when I’m freaking out.” Jinho gestured wildly with his hands, to which Hongseok grinned.

“Well, you’re not freaking out right now, so I’m seeing you differently.” Hongseok snapped his fingers, the three dogs’ ears perking up.  _ “Hopp,”  _ he said gently, and the three stood up, sniffing against one another and waiting before Hongseok started walking down the sidewalk with Jinho at his side, and Mocha trying to join the other three giants following obediently.

“Did you train them yourself?” Jinho said, looking over his shoulder. Rudolph looked like he could eat Mocha  _ and  _ Jinho for dinner alone.

“Yeah. I got them all in Germany, so they’re all trained in German. I mean, if that wasn’t clear,” Hongseok said nervously.

“But do they understand Korean?”

“They do! I just try to keep it to one language when I’m telling them things. I don’t want to overwhelm them. Ada is older, too, so keeping her to one language is easier.” Hongseok waved his hand vaguely. “Y’know, that whole, ‘old dog, new tricks,’ saying is half true. She’s not dumb, but she’s cranky and set in her ways.”

As if understanding Hongseok, Ada snuffled and pressed her nose against the back of his knee. Hongseok laughed, petting her head and saying a command to stop them as they reached a crosswalk.

Sometime between the space from the crosswalk to the coffee shop just a little ways away, Jinho started talking, and he couldn’t really bring himself to stop, which was a little odd. But Hongseok was welcoming, smiled and laughed along, asked questions while moving the conversation along.

And then, sometime before walking back home and parting ways with Hongseok, he ended up giving Hongseok his number— officially. 

_ (“I could’ve gotten it from work, but that would’ve been fucking creepy,” Hongseok had said, and then promptly slapped his hand over his mouth when he realized he had cussed in front of Jinho.) _

Jinho laughed hard at that, liking the way a blush crept up Hongseok’s neck and settled on the tips of his ears and the soft roundness of his cheeks.

  
  
  


On another occasion, where they both texted one another with questions of wanting to go out for coffee again (sans dogs— not that they weren’t nice, but Jinho was practically bowled over the last time he saw Rudolph, to which Hongseok commented that Rudolph never really liked anybody enough to practically suffocate them). Jinho sat across from Hongseok, complaining about winter already.

“It’s ‘cause you’re small,” Hongseok said. Jinho frowned and kicked him under the table.

“I don’t hate winter because it’s  _ cold; _ I hate it because everyone gets sick, and I always get sick at least once.”

“Right, right,” Hongseok said, as if it had completely slipped his mind that Jinho was a hypochondriac. Thankfully, Jinho hadn’t had too bad of a scare lately, and even stopped himself from heading into the hospital once when he felt a pain in his arm  _ (“It’s a stroke! You’re stroking out!” his brain screamed at him while the rest of his brain reminded him that he had lifted a lot of things at work lately— it was normal for his arm to feel a little sore). _

“Oh, but one time, I did get sick, but everyone told me not to worry about it— y’know, like everyone usually does, and it turned out I had swine flu.”

“How in the  _ hell  _ did you get swine flu?” Hongseok said through a laugh, setting his coffee down.

“It’s actually a funny story. My friend and I were—”

“Is that  _ Jo Jinho?”  _

Jinho immediately jumped at the sound of his name, darting his gaze to the right where he found nobody else but Kim Hyojong standing there, hands on his hips, as he accusingly stared him down.

He couldn’t help the grimace that tugged on his lips.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Christ, you’d think after almost ten years of friendship, you’d treat me a little nicer.”

Hongseok shifted in his seat, capturing Hyojong’s and Jinho’s attention. It took Jinho a moment to realize there was also another man standing beside Hyojong.

“Since Jinho won’t introduce us because he’s verbally constipated, I’m Kim Hyojong, his best friend.”

“I’m Hongseok,” he replied with a smile, the beautiful curve of his lips making Jinho’s breath catch for a moment.  _ Weird. Am I having an anxiety attack? _

“And you are...?”

“Oh. Uh, I’m the vet.”

“He’s my friend,” Jinho corrected.

“You got friendly with a vet?” Hyojong said, turning towards Jinho and jutting a thumb towards Hongseok. “Does he feel bad because your sorry ass goes into the vet's office all the time?”

Jinho tried to kick Hyojong, but after years of being friends with him, Hyojong took a step back before he could do so.

“Well, don’t let us intrude on your date,” the other man said, snaking his arm around Hyojong’s own and tugging him away.

“I’ll interrogate you later, Jinho!” 

When Hyojong left, Jinho looked back at Hongseok with a flush on his cheeks, ready to apologize for the interruption and Hyojong’s crass questions when Hongseok turned to him with that same comforting smile on his lips.

“So,” he prefaced, his voice completely casual and comfortable, “swine flu. How’d that come about?”

And just like that, they moved on. Normally. Like Hyojong’s friend didn’t completely insinuate that Jinho and Hongseok were on a date, like it was absolutely, totally commonplace to hear that kind of thing. And then it clicked to Jinho that maybe he was the only one, perhaps, who didn’t piece together that they were truly on dates.

  
  
  
  
  
  


A month passed. Hongseok sat on the floor, his head resting comfortably in Jinho’s lap, between his legs, while Jinho sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Ada was lying on the ground beside Hongseok, while the other two dogs snoozed comfortably in Hongseok’s room.

Hongseok leaned his head back, staring up at Jinho, who was concentrated mainly on the tv show on at the moment. Jinho pursed his lips, frowning as Hongseok reached up and trailed his fingers along his jaw, as if to catch his attention.

“What’s wrong?” Hongseok said. Jinho frowned deeper, his eyes still stuck on the screen in front of him before the show went to commercial. He shook his head, a look of distaste flickering over his expression.

“Just hate how they made hypochondriacs look in this show,” he replied simply. Hongseok nodded his head. “You know, we’re not all weird, cracked out people that think we have every single disease out there. It’s just annoying that the shows make us look like that.”

“Yeah,” Hongseok agreed. “Should be more cute guys like you on TV to represent.”

“Oh, shut up,” Jinho said, pushing at Hongseok’s shoulder. “There’s nothing cute about mental illness.”

“Well, no,  there isn’t. I didn’t say your mental illness was cute. You, yourself, are absolutely, very cute.”

“Gee,” Jinho said. “Thanks so much.” After a moment of hesitation, Jinho continued. “You’re also really cute.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Jinho let out a laugh of awe, shoving Hongseok’s shoulder and pushing him to the side as Hongseok let out a snort of laughter. Hongseok relocated himself up to the couch, plopping down with a content sigh and resting his head on Jinho’s shoulder. Jinho picked up his bottle of water from the side table and took long chugs of it while Hongseok sighed.

“Jinho?” Hongseok said. Jinho let out a hum of acknowledgment. “When are you going to ask me out on a date?”

Jinho choked on his water as he threw his head down and held his face over the couch. Ada glanced at him, glared at Jinho for the mess, before moving to Hongseok’s room with a low rumble of annoyance.

“I— I mean, I thought— D-do you—?”

“Of course I do,” Hongseok said. “Been waiting since last month for you to ask me. I’ve been asking you this whole time.”

“We’ve been going on dates?” Jinho continued, still surprised. He half expected Hongseok to get frustrated, start huffing about how could he have  _ not  _ known they were going on dates, how could he have  _ not  _ known they were moving onto something new, something foreign, something mysterious and horrifying to Jinho? But Hongseok didn’t. He just smiled, as if coaxing Jinho back into relaxation, as if he knew Jinho was already scaring himself beyond normal.

Everything in his brain screamed at him to stop, to think about the decision he was making, by looking into Hongseok’s deep brown eyes, to stare at the curve of his lips and the softness of his eyelashes, the shadow they casted against his cheeks.

It was then that Jinho decided, leaning over and holding Hongseok’s face between his hands. His heart thudded in his chest—  _ a heart attack?—   _ and his palms felt hot and disgustingly sweaty. 

He wanted to apologize to Hongseok, for holding him with clammy hands, but Hongseok was moving in on Jinho as well, his hand coming to rest on the curve of his neck, and Jinho felt him sweating against his own skin. 

The touch sent electricity through Jinho’s body, his heart completely calming down, and yet, still in knots in his throat. Hongseok was  _ nervous.  _ He was nervous, and he was feeling the same things Jinho was, and Jinho— he wasn’t a  _ freak. _

With that, Jinho swept in, pressing his lips against Hongseok’s own, with little preamble or apology. Hongseok’s lips were chapped—  _ dehydration!—  _ but Jinho kept kissing at them, pushing. He leaned forward and held Hongseok against the arm of the couch as Hongseok braced himself against it, his cheeks warm, his pulse beating at a thousand miles per minute, his tongue barely sweeping across Jinho’s bottom lip.

“I still want a date,” Hongseok said, when Jinho pulled away to wipe his palms against his thighs, and vaguely apologize for being so sweaty. “I’ll take you someplace where you can’t get sick.” Hongseok laughed when Jinho punched his shoulder. “A bubble or something.”

“How romantic,” Jinho replied. “I mean, if we’ve been going on all these easy dates, let’s just keep it like this—”

“No  _ way,”  _ Hongseok said, making Jinho giggle at his exasperated tone of voice.

“I’ll take you someplace nice.” Jinho took a moment to think, before snapping his fingers and nodding his head.

“Where’s someplace nice?”

Jinho grinned with a teasing, impish curve to his lips.

“How about instead of the vet’s office, we go to the  _ actual  _ hospital?”

Jinho couldn’t help the loud laugh that escaped him when Hongseok deflated and fell back against the couch with a loud, unamused sigh.

**Author's Note:**

> WOW wasn't that a plotless and boring adventure!! anyways thank u for reading if u made it all the way through, lmk if you found any mistakes or typos~
> 
> talk to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/iIyssssm) or [tumblr](http://ilyssssm.tumblr.com/)!!


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